And I believe that will cost Yeo his job. Besides the reality of how little effort or give a Sh*T Heatley has display this year, I just wonder how the lack of accountability plays with the rest of the team. Playing nice with Heatley is just avoidance not remedy, more than anything it has illuminated Yeo's lack of confrontation and leadership when it is truly required in my mind.
- Tony Dean

I do wonder about that. I'm not sure why Heatley can't be scratched and why that causes such a problem. But if Fletcher is supportive of continuing to play him, maybe it's not as much of a black mark against Yeo as we think it is.

What occurred to me today while reading Russo's article is this: Is Yeo a coach whose system/style of play is too difficult to maintain over a long period given the personnel he has? Could it be that Yeo gets his teams to overachieve early and when they wear down, the bottom just falls out? And could that be his undoing?

This is just a guess, but I thought when Richards was fired and Yeo was hired it was for one simple reason and that was that they thought Richards could not command the respect of the players in the tough times and hold them accountable as well as Yeo could. Given the lineup decisions that have been made last year and so far this year, I question whether or not Yeo is willing to hold everyone accountable on this team. It certainly does not appear to be the case.

I didn't get to see the last three games, but from what I heard, they were awful. And they should have at least been competitive against those teams. That has me wondering about the leadership on this team.

There has been much made of all the captains and leaders they have. Is it possible that with guys like Koivu, Parise, Suter, Pominville, and even a guy like Cooke that there is not a consistent message? Or maybe one guy's message gets ignored because the other leaders don't back it up? Not sure what the deal is. But somebody needs to step up in a big way and back up any words with some action. Personally, I think that is on Koivu.

I don't think that's the case. I think what he's trying to point out is that our frustration and anger with the Heatley situation should be directed mostly at Fletcher and not Heatley. I don't think any of us is too upset with Fletcher, but it's a fair point. Our frustration is more with Yeo continuing to play him at this point. We all know this team is stuck with Heatley for another half season. We can gripe about it all we want and it will always be fair for anyone to point out several of the options that could have been exercised before we got to this point.
- Chinaski

Right or wrong he enjoys dropping his smarmy little posts now and again and the more you argue with hm the smarmier he gets... that aside from the actual conversation, you said it yourself, Heatley was a lot bigger part of the teams success last season and no way had Heatley been healthy was Fletcher going to "send him home" with their first playoff appearance in 5 seasons coming up. In fact if you recall the team went into quite a slide after Heater was injured and out for the season.

Heatley should get most of if not ALL of the heat for his lack luster performance this season. His attitude on the ice has put the entire organization in tough spot. On one hand Yeo could scratch him for a few games and make room for a young buck, but on the other hand they know what this guy is capable of and if he were to finally decide to put forth 100% effort they could be looking at a lot more wins.

Bottom line for me is there was no way in hell Fletcher was going to sit Heatley during the playoffs last season if he had not been hurt... and in fact there was talk from Fletch about trying to fast track Heatleys rehab so that they could possilby utilize him should the Wild have made it to the 2nd round.

It was a no win situation for Fletcher last season... Murphys law if you will.

Seems to me the leadership and players in general must have enough respect and admiration for Heatley if nothing is being reported behind the scenes.

Is there something we the fans and the rest of the league don't know about what's going on with him? The fact that no one in the organization has a bad word to say about Heatley certainly begs the question.

It can't all be on Yeo and Fletcher. Although I myself am starting to think Chinaski hit the nail on the head... Over achieve early and then the bottom falls out when they get tired and start losing... This team is certainly not lacking in talent, so it's hard to believe these guys can't score more than they do, whether Yeo is the problem or not...

...Over achieve early and then the bottom falls out when they get tired and start losing... This team is certainly not lacking in talent, so it's hard to believe these guys can't score more than they do, whether Yeo is the problem or not...
- MnGump

The thing that does concern about that is that Yeo may be a coach that doesn't know how to coach to the personnel he has. If they play the system flawlessly, they're good. If a couple players can't play the system to perfection due to injury, fatigue, attitude, etc., the whole thing breaks down catastrophically and they have nothing to fall back on that can weather the storm.

I'm not sure that's the case here, though. On paper, this team has the skating ability and skill to be able to play a possession game and score goals. But, to me, their possession game lacks an attack mentality. They seem content to retain possession without creating chances and then they explain away the lack of chances by pointing to good possession numbers and saying it's just bad puck luck, if they keep working, they'll start to go in. I don't buy that. They won't start to score goals until they attack the net more aggressively. I'm seriously wondering if the system Yeo has them playing ever calls for going to the net. Maybe he just forgot to tell them that part.

I think that's why Parise seems pissed when commenting on their play. To me, he's the only one that seems to want to go to the net before making a pass to retain possession. The rest of them seem content to play with it on the wall all shift.

Since I didn't get to see the games recently, I did kind of notice on Russo's Twitter feed that with Granlund back, he seemed to be the one drawing a few penalties himself. That tells me they do have a guy that is playing a threatening level of offensive hockey in the right part of the ice. When Parise comes back, he really needs to see what Parise-Granlund-Pominville can do together.

Anyone catch any of Canada's WJC games? If so, any opinion on how Dumba is looking?

Anyone catch any of Canada's WJC games? If so, any opinion on how Dumba is looking?
- Chinaski

He has struggled with his angles/lanes even in the WJHC. He has scored a goal had a couple assists. Seem almost assured to be on his way to Portland after its over though.

Anyone catch any of Canada's WJC games? If so, any opinion on how Dumba is looking?
- Chinaski

He has struggled with his angles/lanes even in the WJHC. He has scored a goal had a couple assists. Seem almost assured to be on his way to Portland after its over though.